problem with linked excel worksheet object in word changing to object and then link not updating

I'm glad to hear that worked! Hopefully it will stick.

The temporary hack we are using is to double click on a linked table in Word, let it open Excel and then the "linked worksheet option" appears. Then we can click, "update table." I think I was able to highlight all charts/tables and do it all at once yesterday, but then I couldn't recreate my order of operations today.

Hey, after changing the table links to Auto then the update very quickly when I open the Word doc and then they each update immediately in Word after making any change to the table in Excel. All the text links are still set to manual and I use a macro to automatically update all of those with a push of a button. The only way I have found to keep the table formatting intact when moving the file to a new location is use "save as". Basically keep the excel and word file open, then "save as" the excel file to the new location and then "save as" the word file to the new location. I used to be able to use a macro that changed the source file of all links in the word document at one time when moving the files to new locations but would have to keep the source excel file open when making that change. So the "save as" method is a little different method but it works for now and is not very time consuming. Hopefully it continues to work.

I'm still using 365 Version 2207 (Build 1542720210 Click-to-Run) on both the Dell and Surface. Also, I rolled the Dell back to Windows 10 but that didnt fix the initial problem with linked excel worksheet object in word changing to object and then link not updating. The Surface is still on Windows 11 with the same 365 version and works the same way. The only way I have found to keep the excel table links working was to change them to Auto and click "yes" when Word asks if I want to "update this document with the data from the linked files" when opening the file.

I'm still confused as to why any of this happened all of a sudden. I have seen random posts online about this same issue over the past 10+ years and it seems to be an unsolved mystery. Some people would post follow-ups that noted the issue seemed to resolve itself on its own after a few weeks. I will do the same if anything changes. Would love to know if there is some random setting that changed that I could identify to fix this.

Hmmm...I don't know how many Excel links you have in your Word, but does it take a crazy long time to Auto update them? Also, we have the same formatting issue after a manual change, as well, but our links disappear. Then again, we haven't changed each link from Manual to Auto as you have.

Shoot! I thought we were on to something.

One thing I have changed that has helped a little is changing the each table link from manual to automatic update. Now when I open the word doc (with linked excel file already open), it asks if I want to "update this document with the data from the linked files", and I select "yes".

Initially, all the table links changed to a text that says:

But if I update the links again (either manually or with macro that updates all links in the word doc), then the table links are restored. The only problem with this (that I wasnt experiencing before) is all the tables lose their formatting (had them set to black and white; fixed width to match the margins). But once I manually change their formatting then it keeps that formatting even after I update the link or save/close/re-open and update the links again.

If anyone knows a way to keep the table links formatting from changing after initially restoring all the links (need to do this when moving the linked word and excel files to a new location) then I will be almost back to normal.